Sins Of The Father
by LenaAlexHunt
Summary: Post S3. Gene Hunt's daughter has always felt like her father didn't care... But when he looks at her, all he sees is Alex, and Jenna's mysterious mother. What will it take for him to love her? AU.
1. Chapter 1

**So, angsty little fic idea that popped into my head! It's going to be mulitchapter, and maybe a bit OOC, but I hope you'll like it! It's set post series three, and... well... you'll have to read it and see! Please enjoy and R&R!**

The phone rang loudly, cutting through Gene's headache like a red hot knife. He rubbed his eyes with one hand, blinking away the boredom that threatened to consume his life ever since Bolly had... well. Been Bolly, and done the exact opposite of what he'd wanted her to, and gone into the Railway Arms. He snatched up the receiver irritably.

"Hunt." He snapped, his tone rough and brisk.

"When are you coming home?" The voice on the other end was light, educated and distinctly female. He scowled with distaste.

"Jen, I'm busy... I can't make it 'ome." He didn't offer an apology, didn't try to explain. He just cut her off, not in the mood to talk.

"I know you're lying. I know you're not." Her tone was starting to break with emotion, and he sighed heavily.

"Yeah, I am. Won't be 'ome till late tomorrow. Go on to bed." He tried to be gentle with her, but it was hard. He'd never known what to say to her, not ever.

"Dad, please! What have I done that's so wrong? Why do you hate me?" she pleaded with him, and he sighed again.

"Got ter go. Talk soon." He hung up without further explanation or justification for his actions.

It was never going to be easy, raising a teenage daughter by himself. He'd always had to raise her alone, ever since his wife had refused to go near the strange child that turned up on the doorstep late one night, no word of explanation. It was obvious to everyone what had happened, and his wife, whilst tolerating the strange, hazel-eyed child, had never accepted her.

For Gene, she was a constant reminder of the woman he had spent only one night with, the woman he had known – with utter certainty – that he had loved, the woman he had wanted to be with. He didn't even remember her name, not any more, but he remembered her eyes – hazel orbs, sparkling with love and life, that were now mirrored in their daughter. Baby Jenna. Not such a baby any more, not so ignorant to Daddy spending every waking hour at work.

As she got older, she looked more and more like the woman who was fading from Gene's memory, more and more like the mother she had never even known, who had disappeared without a trace. The more she began to become a painful reminder of the woman he could never have, the woman who had made him so happy and yet so indescribably sad. The more she had tried to be herself, the more she waved her hair and smiled and laughed and tried to be her own, immediate, natural self, the sadder he became, and he had debated whether or not to just leave her in Manchester when he moved, but of course he couldn't.

So she'd moved down here with him, a new school, a new life, and he supposed he should feel guilty but he didn't. She grew and developed, and then all of a sudden there she was. Alex Drake. Fainting her way into his life, and she was so like his daughter that work was no longer the place he could be free but another sick reminder of the mystery woman he so coveted.

Even now, her name escaped him, swimming almost to the forefront of his memory and then slipping away. He closed his eyes. What could he remember?

_Eyes... sparkling, hazel orbs. Hair... long, wavy, deep chestnut. Her laugh... richer than Jenna's. Something about Bolly's made him think of it. _

He shook his head. Always back to her. He couldn't stop bloody thinking about her, even when he thought about his home life. Lots of people laughed like that. Christ, why couldn't he ever escape any more? He came to work – he thought about Bolly. He went home – he thought about the mystery woman.

The phone rang again.

"_What_?_" _He barked impatiently, his tone furious.

"I love you, Dad."

He slammed the receiver back into the cradle without responding. She was his daughter, but he hardly knew her. Every time he saw her, he asked himself the same question:

_Do I love _you?_ Or do I love you because you're so like your mother?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry about the delay, guys, I was in Rome! Anyway, back now, here is part two. I hope you like it, it will get better and much more dramatic, and Alex will appear soon! Please R&R, and enjoy!**

Jenna Hunt sat on her bed, staring over at the wall above her desk, the phone dangling from her hand by its cord. "Thanks Dad." She whispered. "Thanks for _nothing._"

She set the phone back in its cradle, staring over her wall of news clippings. In each one, her father's name either screamed from the headline, or else sat quietly in the bulk of text. Here and there, his face stared gravely down at her from grainy black and white pictures, and sometimes he was accompanied by the beautiful brunette woman who he seemed to talk about so much before, but now he never mentioned. Muttered something about her getting a transfer, and gave her a look that told her to stop asking.

But he never talked about Chris or Ray now. Mentioned something about them transferring too, but Jenna failed to understand. Why would his most loyal deputies all leave him? Not that she had actually ever meet them – her father had been keen that his sixteen year old daughter and work colleagues had remained firmly separate. As far as they knew, Gene Hunt was childless.

Though Jenna didn't admit it often, that stung a bit. Was he ashamed of her? Embarrassed? Why didn't he want people to know about her? What was so wrong with her that he couldn't even tell Chris or Ray, his closest friends, that he was a father?

She swung her legs off her bed and unfolded her tall form, striding across the room to sit at her desk and better admire the photos. Her favourite was pinned above her mirror. Her father, with the brunette woman – DI Drake, that was it – stood by a stolen car, Gene looking quietly triumphant and serious, whilst the woman flashed a winning smile at the photographer. This photo stood out because it was the only one meticulously picked out in colour, and suddenly curious, Jenna pulled it down, placing it on the desk and examining it.

There was no denying the woman was beautiful. High cheekbones, green, or maybe brown, eyes. Her hair was permed, but growing out, giving her a soft look, and she'd mastered the blue eyeshadow look that Jenna had always so struggled with. In a flash of inspiration, she opened a drawer and removed her own makeup, sitting silently painting and enhancing for a few moments until she posed, pouting, in front of the mirror a moment later, her eyes a swirl of aqua blue and black mascara. She smiled. That was better. Maybe she should try the outfit too? She had a blue top like that somewhere, and her jeans were already skin tight.

She changed without a fuss, clipping her hair to the back of her head in a vague approximation of the woman's, standing and posing, fingers latched through her belt loops, in front of the full length mirror attached to the inside of her wardrobe door. She strode through the house, feeling suddenly empowered, until she reached the kitchen, where she began to prepare dinner for not only herself but her father too, suddenly deciding that she would take it to him where he worked. She was fairly sure she knew the way. Why not visit him? It would be late by the time she got there, no-one else there but him. He worked so late, she knew he was often the last one in the office.

She sang as she worked, any number of songs, but by the time she left she was onto Spandau Ballet, her high voice rising and falling as she danced out of the house, a Tupperware box of lasagne in her bag, determined to show her father that she was worthy of being acknowledged by him.

The journey across the slumbering city felt short, and as she stepped off the bus and into the chill night air, she pulled her white jacket around her, shivering slightly as she watched her breath condense before her. She stood opposite the building where she knew he worked, hazel eyes drinking in the sight of the glass-fronted building before ascending the stairs and entering the warm embrace of the reception area.

"Gene Hunt?" She asked the smartly uniformed man behind the desk, and he pointed along another corridor lined with windows blocked with blinds. It looked dark and foreboding, save for a narrow chink of light halfway along, and she headed towards that, pushing through a set of double doors and entering what appeared to be her father's kingdom.

The lights were off, but she could see the alternating black and white panels of the ceiling, and from a glass-box-type office, enough light flooded to illuminate four desks, covered in neat stacks of paperwork and files. There was a smell of cigarettes and whiskey in the air, and as she advanced towards Gene's office, she felt suddenly nervous. Maybe she shouldn't...

"Who's there?" he called out, and she stepped forwards, into the half-light from his desk lamp.

"Alex...?" His voice was choked with emotion, reverent. With a jolt, Jenna realised that in his semi-inebriated state, her father thought her to be this mysterious woman that he had so coveted, so spoken of. It hadn't taken a genius to work out that that's what it was, between them.

Gene stood, awestruck. "Bolly... Alex... come 'ere, please..." He whispered, and Jenna's heart broke. She couldn't reveal the truth to him, couldn't break his heart like that. She turned, running from CID, never stopping until she got home, and then she sunk down on the floor in defeat, her tears already removing the last of her makeup, and as she wrenched the clasp from her hair, throwing it across the room at her mirror, watching it shatter into a thousand sparkling daggers, she screamed.

"_WHY AM I NEVER GOOD ENOUGH, DAD? WHY?"_


	3. Chapter 3

**So, this is a combination of two things. I wanted to bring Alex into it, so here she is - the flashbacks are to explain the time differences and such. Hope you all enjoy it, and love the cliffhanger :D Please R&R!**

Alex Drake looked up from the screen she had been watching, tears streaming silently down her face. She was obviously distressed, and Nelson casually strolled over to her.

"What's wrong, Alex?" He asked, dropping his usual Caribbean accent for his usual one.

"Gene... why doesn't he love his daughter? Why didn't he tell me he even _had _a daughter?" She whispered, and Nelson shook his head slowly.

"He does love her. He just doesn't know he does. He'll learn. And as for not telling you... even _they"_ – Nelson jerked his thumb in Chris and Ray's direction – "Don't know about her."

"Why? What's he so ashamed of? And what do you mean "he'll learn"?" Her voice was becoming louder and Nelson shushed her, pointing down at the screen she had been observing the whole sorry scenario on.

"I can't tell you the story as well as they can, Alex. Watch." He commanded her firmly, and she returned her eyes to the grainy image, feeling it pulling her in, dragging her under, until she was an observer on a world that was quite unknown to her.

_The calendar on the wall said June 1967. It was dark outside, and looking around the small room, Alex wondered where she was. A knock on the door jolted her from this strange dystopia, and she watched a curvaceous blonde woman thunder downstairs and wrench it open. "If it's one of you lot playin' silly beggars again..." She shouted, before stopping abruptly. Alex crept into the hall, nervous despite the fact that this woman couldn't see or hear her. On the doorstep, wrapped in a blanket in a Moses basket was a baby, an envelope resting on her tiny form._

"_GENE!" The woman thundered, and suddenly Alex understood. This was Mrs Hunt. But this baby... must be... _

_The scene faded, changed. "Diana, please! It was a one night thing! I never loved 'er! Not like I love you!" Gene was pleading, but Mrs Hunt remained stony-faced. _

"_So why'd you want the bloody baby? Just give it away! God, I'm used to you playin' away, Gene, but this takes the bloody biscuit!" She scoffed, and Gene sighed, running his hands through his hair._

"_I face me responsibilities! I face me bloody _mistakes!" _He hollered, and the baby stirred. Alex's heart broke. He saw her as a mistake. That's why he hated her. "A mistake..." she whispered to herself, but something told her it was more than that. Gene picked up the birth certificate and read it. "Baby Jenna. Father – Gene Hunt. Mother –" _

_The scene flickered, and Alex frowned. She only wanted to know who the mother of this strange child was. Nothing more. Why Gene hated her so much._

_A new scene faded into being, another memory. A young girl, no more than six years old, sat at the dinner table with Diana Hunt. She was eating the food before her with a high degree of concentration, and Diana was scowling at her._

"_Diana?" The little girl asked, and the woman's scowl intensified._

"_What?" she snapped, and the little girl failed to pick up the hint of irritation in the woman's voice._

"_Where's Daddy?" She asked, and Diana sighed loudly. _

"_God knows. Out working, probably. Same as usual."_

_This time, the scene did not fade. Alex was snapped abruptly to the next place, and she was startled to see Gene sat at a desk in a dark room. So this was Manchester, GMP. He was nursing a tumbler of Scotch in one hand, muttering into it drunkenly._

"_So like yer mum, wish I could remember 'er. I just see 'er in you, what little I can remember. She was perfect. Can't even remember 'er name most nights. Prince? Somethin' Prince? God, why can't I remember? Damn you Jenna... you screwed this up for me! I thought I was over 'er!"_

_Just as Alex felt her heart could break no more, the scene shifted one final time. Jenna, now teenage, was lying on her bed, a pillow clamped over her ears, crying silently. From downstairs, Alex could hear shouts and she listened more intently._

"_I'M NOT HAVING A BLOODY TEENAGER IN MY 'OME! I TOOK THE BRAT IN, AIN'T THAT ENOUGH? I FED 'ER, CLOTHED 'ER! BUT I DRAW THE LINE AT A SODDING TEENAGE GIRL! YOU CAN LOOK AFTER 'ER YERSELF!" Diana Hunt screamed, and Alex wondered how any woman could feel that way about a child. Teenage – that meant Jenna must be thirteen. Of course... this was 1980. The year of the divorce, the move._

"_I'M GRIEVING, YOU MAD BITCH! I LOST MY BEST MATE!" Gene screamed back. Of course. Sam._

"_I DON'T GIVE TWO FIGS IF YER GRIEVING OR NOT! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY 'OUSE! AND TAKE THE KID WITH YOU!"_

With a stomach-churning swirl, Alex was back in the pub. "Nelson... how could she... how could he... what did you mean about learning he loves her?" She asked, her mind spinning. "Who's her mother?"

Nelson shook his head. "I can't tell you that, Alex. But he'll learn." His words brought little comfort. Looking back at her screen, Alex glimpsed in the briefest of flashes a car smashing into something – some_one – _and in that horrible second she understood.

"No... _no!" _Turning, she ran from the pub, the only thing that had been stopping her now gone. She had thought Gene could live without her. Now he was hallucinating about her, pushing away his daughter. He needed her.

~/~/~/~

As Alex sprinted from the pub, Jenna sat by her father's safe, the door swung wide open. In her hand was the brown envelope that contained her birth certificate, and as she slid out the reddish-pink paper, her hands trembled. She couldn't even remember her own mother's name.

Unfolding the page, her eyes scanned it expertly. There.

"_Mother's name: Alexandra Price."_


	4. Chapter 4

**So, here's part four... hope you're all enjoying the story so far! I will explain Alex and Gene in the next chapters, probably by flashback :D Please R&R, and enjoy!**

The knock at the door was unexpected, snapping Jenna from her semi-sleep abruptly. Maybe she should answer? What if it was important?

No. She didn't want to move from here, curled up on her bedroom floor, the relative safety of a familiar world comforting her, holding her together. The broken glass from her mirror littered the floor, a thin sheen of silver that reflected the whiteness of the ceiling and the stark contrast of the red walls. The knock repeated. Louder, more insistent. She rolled over, her hair filling with the sparkling shards of glass, and dragged herself to the window in time to see the mysterious woman from the news articles crossing the road, finally giving up.

"No!" She shouted, her words muffled by the thick glass, and the woman failed to turn. Jenna stood, running from her room, the piece of paper still clutched in her hand. As she barrelled down the stairs, yanking open the front door, she could only wonder who this woman was, that made her matter so much to her father. She wondered why this woman had left, why she had broken her father's heart.

As she ran across the road, she didn't see the sleek black Mercedes racing along, hidden in the dark cloak of the night. As she opened her mouth to call out to the strange woman, the car struck her, tearing her words into a scream of pain, and the woman turned.

_Alex knew in that instant that she had failed. She had tried to stop it from happening, tried to make amends, and now... Jenna was flying into the air, almost in slow motion, and then she was falling back to earth, a scream dying on her lips. Alex was with her in a second, knowing that she needed to help, and as she knelt beside the fallen girl, taking her hand reassuringly, squeezing it. She looked down at Jenna, taking in the curve of her jaw, her hazel eyes, and in that second something inside her clenched. This girl felt... familiar._

"_Certifi... certificate..." Jenna whispered, her voice broken. Alex looked down at her hand, noticing the red paper clutched between her trembling fingers, and slowly she drew it out, unfolding it with apprehension. A birth certificate. Father – Gene Hunt. Mother –_

_No. That couldn't be possible. How? When? No! She couldn't possibly be this girl's mother... how was that even feasible? She wasn't even _born _in 1967!_

_Then from the Mercedes stepped the last person in the world she wanted to see right then._

"_Shit... Jen... oh my God, she came out of nowhere, it was an accident... _Bolls?" _Gene rambled, the last thought the only coherent one._

_She knew she couldn't tell him. She knew that no matter what happened, she couldn't tell him now, here. Not that he'd believe her, anyway. She shoved the piece of paper deep within her pocket, standing._

"_Urm. Gene. Hi." She blushed furiously, suddenly embarrassed, expecting Gene to be angry, expecting him to shout and swear and demand her to go back to that hell on earth._

"_Bolls... don't just stand there like a bloody lemon! Get 'elp! She's me sodding daughter!" he shouted, no words of relief that she was back, no welcome home._

"_Yes Guv." She muttered, standing and returning to the house, dialling an ambulance as fast as her trembling fingers would allow. He didn't know. He honestly had not put two and two together and worked out who she was. This was why he had been so moody with her. Why he hated Jenna so much. One thing led to another._

_The mother neither he nor Jenna remembered. Jenna reminded him of this woman. Alex reminded him of Jenna, and therefore this woman. He had never thought that his Bolly, his Drakey could be that woman._

_~/~/~/~_

_At the hospital, as they waited, they waited in silence. Jenna was in theatre. Gene sat on one side of the corridor, Alex the other. Neither was quite sure what to say._

"_Bolly..." Gene started, just as Alex began: "Guv..."_

"_Why are you back 'ere, Bolls?" Gene asked, his tone weary._

"_I... I needed to sort some things out. Big things." She explained, choosing her words carefully._

"_Like what?" Gene's tone was patronising. "You 'ad it all. Everything you wanted. That pub, with all the team. No me, messing everything up for you. None of me lunatic driving. Unlimited wine and whiskey and enough attractive men to keep yer busy for at least a few months."_

"_What? You think... you think it was easy for me? Going in there?" She was taken aback._

"_Well, yeah! No worries... no me..." His tone was wary now, worried by her response._

"_And no Molly! What about my daughter, Gene? My little girl?" She was unusually vicious in her response, trying to comprehend the fact she had two daughters, not just Molly. Trying to comprehend the fact she had had a child she couldn't even remember, had never even known._

"_WHAT ABOUT MINE, ALEX? MY LITTLE GIRL'S LYING IN A HOSPITAL ROOM, WHERE I PUT 'ER! I RAN 'ER OVER!" He shouted, his voice breaking the silence of the hospital._

"_YOU DON'T EVEN LOVE HER!" Alex screamed back, her voice breaking on the last syllable._

"_HOW BLOODY DARE YER! IT'S NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!" He hollered, his face a mask of rage._

"_ACTUALLY, GENE, IT IS!" She regretted the words almost immediately, knowing that she was taking the first steps on a slippery slope._

"_WHY?" He demanded. "WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO CARE?"_

"_SHE'S MY DAUGHTER, GENE!"_


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the delay in the update, I've been rushed off my feet with school! I hope you like this and it explains some back story... please R&R, and enjoy :)**

Gene's reaction was instinctive, and he had lashed out at her before her could help himself, his hand slicing a red weal across her cheek with a loud crack. She stared at him, her eyes devoid of tears, simply staring at him with slate-like eyes, empty of all emotion, and defying him to do it again, defying him to crack first.

He stared at his hand like it was an alien thing, before he rounded on her, blaming her, and the argument began.

"How dare you say that? You 'ave _no bloody right_! You are _not _her mother! Why would you even say that? Answer me, Alex!" he shouted, and she felt her face flush with anger.

"Because it says so on her birth certificate! Are you ignorant? Blind?" She was yelling back, not thinking before she spoke, simply saying whatever came to mind and hurling the abuse at him. She waved the birth certificate at him and he snatched it from her hand.

"Says 'ere "Alex Price". Last time I checked, you were Alex Drake, or 'ave you got that short a memory, Drake?" He hollered, and she rolled her eyes.

"I AM ALEX PRICE! I GOT MARRIED, GENE! I HAD A DAUGHTER! ALEX DRAKE AND ALEX PRICE! WHAT ARE YOU? THICK?"She lost it then, full-on screaming at him, and he was glaring at her furiously.

"WELL YER A LYING COW! YOU CAN'T BE HER MOTHER, I THINK I'D REMEMBER SHAGGING YOU!" He screamed back, incandescent with rage, and she stood, slamming down the corridor, not entirely sure where she would go, knowing only that she had to get away from him.

Tears clouded her vision as she stumbled from the hospital, wanting only to return, not for Gene but for her daughter, the daughter she had never known, the daughter who was lying in a hospital bed, still unsure of the truth about her mother.

Her feet seemed to know the way without her telling them, and she was stood before the green door to the Railway Arms before she properly had time to fathom why she was returning there. As she tugged open the door, her face a mess, she wanted nothing more than to talk to Shaz, to tell her everything, but as she staggered inside, something seemed wrong, and a voice from near the bar confirmed this fear.

"You alright, love?" Gene. Shit, Gene. How could he be here? _Here? _

She looked up, shaking, and saw that something was very, very wrong. A much younger Gene was sat before her, alone, nursing a beer, and Nelson smiled knowingly at her from over by the jukebox. This wasn't even the _right _Railway Arms, too small, too cramped, everything in the wrong place.

"_Tonight's the night, Alex. It's 1967. Gene's alone in here. He's fairly drunk already. He can't remember this night. If he remembers this night... things will never be the same." _Nelson's voice whispered quietly in her ear, and she understood in that split second what this night meant to both her and Gene. The night Jenna would be conceived. It was now.

She smiled a secret smile and stumbled over to Gene, falling into his arms, telling herself that this wasn't the Gene who had slapped her and called her a liar, this was a different, younger Gene that would treat her well. She whispered in his ear and looked at him through teary lashes, and finally he kissed her, his mouth warm and soft and so much more besides, his tongue dancing with hers, teasing her, testing her, and she only had time to pull away and whisper "upstairs" before he was dragging her, needing no second invitation, wanting only this strange, mysterious woman. They shed clothing, needing each other more than they were willing to let on, making love with a frantic urgency, as though time was short.

Alex fell asleep in his arms, feeling the warmth of his breath on her neck. As she drifted away, she heard him whisper: "Love you, Alex." And a single, perfectly formed tear rolled down her cheek. She knew how this ended. She knew it couldn't last, and when she woke in the morning, her heart broke as she realised she had to leave him sleeping here. Reaching over him, she slid his warrant card from the pocket of his cast off trousers, slipping it into her bag as she dressed. She snuck downstairs, Nelson stacking stools in the bar with a smug smile on his face.

"What happens now, Nelson? Where do I go?" She asked, and her voice was desperate. She wanted nothing more than to go back to Gene, to stay with him, and never have to face the Gene she had left behind – a furious, guilty, broken shell, a mere shadow of the Gene Hunt she loved. But before she could follow her heart, Nelson had clicked his fingers and she was back in her Railway Arms, Shaz by her side, and her heart was breaking all over again. She had lost Gene, in every sense, in every time. She could never go back to him, not until he remembered, not until he knew her for who she really was.

~/~/~/~

Nine months later, Jenna Elizabeth Hunt was born. Alex fought to not give her up, but Nelson explained to her that the pub was no place for a baby. Unless she gave up Jenna, she would alter the course of history. But still Alex had fought, argued, cried and clung to her newborn daughter, her heart feeling it would break if they took away her child.

In the end, they waited until she slept, lifting the infant from her cot, sneaking her from Alex's room, and when she woke and realised what they had done, she knew she could not stay. Her daughter... her baby. They'd taken her... and now she had nothing to live for in this pub, this prison. Despite everything they said, everything they told her, she staggered to her feet, clutching her stomach, running from the pub urgently, needing Gene, needing her child.

She made it to the hospital car park before she crumpled, feeling the blood on her jeans, her eyes fluttering closed.

"_Bolly..._" The voice seemed distant. "_ALEX!"_

Her eyes fluttered one final time, the sound of running feet filling her ears.

"Gene..." she whispered, then everything went black.


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry about the delay! I'm rushed off my feet with year 11 at the moment, but here is part six! Gene's point of view, to vary things a little, please enjoy and R&R!**

Gene Hunt wasn't sure how he got here. One second he was sat in the hospital, waiting for Jenna to get out of surgery. The next, he was fighting with Bolly and she was storming out, leaving him feeling like absolute shit and wondering if there was some grain of truth in what she said.

He thought back to that night. The woman with shoulder length brown hair seemed suddenly clearer, more in focus. He remembered telling her he loved her over and over, whispering to her as he made love to her, her eyes, holding his gaze as she spoke to him.

She was upset, he remembered that now. She was crying, and he was alone and he didn't need to be macho or manly, he could be himself. So he'd pulled up a stool and listened to her cry, and when he patted her shoulder, it seemed natural to let his arm snake around her and hold her close. And somehow, she'd let him, leaning into his warmth, letting him kiss her neck, her shoulder, her jaw.

Stairs... dark and winding, familiar and yet at the same time alien, her hands on his face, his chest, his hands on her waist, and then the room he was so used to by now. And they were on the bed and on each other and he was calling her name as he moved against her pale skin.

A name that now rose to the surface, demanded to be pulled from his very soul, bubbled onto his lips and died like a sigh as he whispered it, knowing in that instant that she hadn't lied. _"Alex..."_

He leapt to his feet, unsure of where she would be but knowing he had to get her back before she did something stupid. Before he could move, before he could so much as put together the command in his brain to move, there was a nurse by his side telling him that Jenna was out of theatre, and he found himself instead following her.

His daughter looked impossibly small, swathed in metres of bandages, her face the only thing visible to him. His baby. His baby, broken, because he was a stupid, reckless driver and had lied and forgotten and hated her because of the mother she had never known. Alex. Looking at her face now, it seemed incredible to him he had never seen it. Her jaw followed the same line as Alex's, the hair smoothed back and secured at the nape of her neck exactly the same as her mother's. The eyes – closed for now – were the same shade of hazel, the same orbs that had so captivated him first with an Alex an age before, then with his Bolly. He felt a sudden surge of guilt and he sat beside her, taking one tiny, pale hand in his.

"Jen... I'm so sorry. I've never been the best o' dads, I admit. But I shouldn't've 'ated yer cos of who yer mum is, and I shouldn't've 'ated yer cos of Alex. You just reminded me of 'em both, and I couldn't stand it. I should 'ave loved you cos of who you were, but I couldn't. And I was stupid, and blind... but when yer better, I will be the best I can to make this up to you. Yer my little princess, Jen, and I never told yer, always too busy with work or somethin'. I love you, baby. Please wake up. I need yer." He whispered, his voice hoarse with tears. He raised her hand to his lips, kissing it gently, before laying it back on the bed, squeezing it tenderly and standing.

"I'll... I'll be back later. Gotta do something first. Hang in there, Jen." He murmured, shrugging on his coat and striding out of the hospital room, his feet taking him to the car park. It was there that he saw her.

Staggering towards him, dressed in a loose blouse and jeans, face drained of blood, clutching her stomach. Alex. She looked a wreck, and he called her name once to no avail. He quickened his step, noticing with a sickening jolt as he got closer that her legs were covered in blood. She stumbled, falling to the floor, and he shouted her name louder.

"ALEX!" He ran towards her, scooping her up, feeling her blood seeping into his coat, hot and salty-smelling. The next few minutes were a blur as he ran with her, calling for help, resisting all attempts of men in paramedic uniforms to pull her away from him, not content until he was laying her down on a trolley, kissing her forehead, and then she was gone.

He was left, alone, in the corridor, her blood on his arms, his shirt, his jacket, her closed eyes looking just the same as her daughter's, her face horribly pale and white.

He had lost them both, both wrenched from him by some hand of fate, determined to punish him by taking the two people he cared about the most from him. This was his fault, and he knew only he could make amends.

He sunk into a chair, head in his hands.

He needed to do something major.


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry about the delay, everyone! I've been running around trying to do coursework and such, so yeah...**

**Please enjoy this chapter, R&R! Much love to my faithful reviewer sash queen of the jungle :)**

Gene sat with his head in his hands. Alex was in one part of the hospital, and Jenna in another, and so he was sat in the middle, ready to run to whichever one needed him.

They'd explained to him about Alex, what had happened. He'd struggled to comprehend how it was even possible that in her short absence she'd given birth to a child when she hadn't even been the slightest bit pregnant when she left him. It couldn't be possible, surely. Yet that was what they said, and her blood still stained his shirt, a dark, dusty brown now, the smell of rust and salt filling his nostrils.

He knew he looked a wreck, but there was no point cleaning himself up. He wasn't going to be leaving the hospital, so he might as well just stay looking like this, bloody and tired and stressed. He contemplated at least washing the dried and crusted blood from his hands, but then a nurse bustled up to him, smiling.

"Ms Drake's awake now, Mr Hunt. You can see her." She reassured, and he was on his feet and following her without thinking. Endless corridors of white flashed by, the smell of antiseptic burning his nose as he got closer and closer to where she was. A final corner, more unintelligible gobbledegook on signs, and then there she was, sat up on a trolley, smiling weakly at him.

"Bolly." He went straight to her, taking her tiny, fragile hand in his and squeezing it gently.

"Guv." She murmured, and her eyes closed for a fraction too long, her eyelashes brushing her cheeks as she blinked at him.

"Alex... I don't understand... how is this possible? You were 'ere, then you were gone, and you get back and you've 'ad a bloody baby!" He said, cursing himself for how uncaring the words sounded.

"It's... complicated, Gene. I was in the pub... and you were there... and... oh, just look." She handed him a small leather package and he unfolded it, eyes popping as he took in the familiar photo and wording.

"But... it's me warrant card. From back in sixty-seven. I lost this after we... you know." He mumbled, and Alex's eyes lit up.

"You... you remember...?" She asked, her voice quietly hopeful, and he nodded. A single tear rolled down her cheek and he wiped it away with his thumb. She shifted under his touch and he pulled back, feeling the sting of rejection but understanding she didn't need this, not now. She shuffled around on the pillows, dragging herself up on the pillows, and he put his arm around her automatically, trying to support her and stop her from falling. She leant into his warmth, and then slowly turned her head so that she was looking at him, the tears still rolling down her cheeks.

"I knew you would, Gene. I knew it." She whispered, and then she was kissing him, her lips soft and warm and salty, and he was so unsure at first, but then her hand went to the back of his neck and he was responding to her, kissing her back.

He pulled away first, staring into her eyes and smiling. "I don't know how I ever forgot you, Bolly. You're pretty unforgettable." He told her, and she laughed, wincing as it pulled at her stomach. She looked up at Gene through her eyelashes, needing one thing and one thing only.

"Where is she, Gene?" she wondered, and he knew instantly who she meant, understanding her need to see her daughter.

"I'll take yer to her." He assured, helping her into the wheelchair by her bed and wheeling her down the corridors he was now so used to, one of her hands resting on his, her face expectant.

Jenna's room was dimly lit, the dark cityscape outside the window illuminated by a full moon. She lay on the bed, surrounded by a plethora of machines and wires, and Alex took her hand through the mass of medical equipment, squeezing it gently.

"The last time I held your hand, you were just a baby. You could only hold one of my fingers in your palm. And now you're all grown up, and you're so beautiful, baby. My little girl. If only you'd wake up, so I could talk to you. I want to know all about your life, all about you. What are you like? Are you like me? Or your dad? I need to talk to you, Jen, so please wake up, for your dad, for me... please, wake up for your mum..." She implored, lifting Jenna's hand and pressing it to her lips, before returning it to the crisp hospital sheets and stroking her daughter's cheek slowly.

Jenna's eyes fluttered open slowly, and she took in Alex's face, tear stained and plastered with a nervous smile.

"Mum?"


	8. Chapter 8

**HUGE cliffhanger at the end of this chapter! Speedy update as promised though :)**

**Please R&R, it makes me me happy :D**

"Mum?" Jenna repeated, her voice cracked and dry. Alex lifted a beaker of cool water to her daughter's lips and waited patiently as she drunk.

"Jenna… I'm your mum. I can't believe I've finally found you again… after all these years…" Alex's voice was raw with emotion, and Jenna frowned, shuffling around, wanting to sit up and see this mother she had never met.

"Jen, no… don't move… you're pretty badly hurt, you need to rest. You've broken your leg, and your shoulder's fractured." Alex fussed, but Jenna persisted, grimacing as she reached a sitting position. She took in Alex critically, pausing for a moment before speaking.

"But you're the woman… the woman in the photos. Alex Drake." Jenna said, confused. How could this woman be her mother?

"It's… complicated. I met your father a long time ago, in a pub… and we fell in love. But we couldn't be together, and so I had to leave him, and then I had to leave you with him, but please know I never, ever wanted to. It broke my heart leaving you, and I never want to hurt you or him again. I'm here to stay." Alex explained, but Jenna was still confused.

"But you worked with him…" She mumbled, and looked up, her eyes meeting Alex's.

"It's… very complicated. I forgot everything, and I didn't know about you or him or anything back then." It seemed a plausible explanation, and she smiled reassuringly at her daughter.

"What, like amnesia?" Jen probed, and Alex laughed slightly.

"Exactly like amnesia." Seeing the worried look on her daughter's face, she realised she should set her mind at ease. "But I'm better now, I promise. I'm all better. I'm not going to forget again."

"Good." Jen whispered, smiling at her mother. She looked around the room, eyes settling on Gene. "Dad… you… you _ran me over!_" She accused, and he hung his head, ashamed.

"It was an accident, Jen… I wasn't thinking and I'm sorry and I'm an idiot fer driving like a tart… I never meant to hurt yer." He apologised, and Jen sniffed once, expressing her disbelief.

"I suppose I'm still here, so it's no harm done." She reasoned aloud, and Gene walked towards her slowly, hardly daring to hope.

"You won't… press charges?" His tone was pleading. Gene Hunt didn't plead.

"Course I won't. You're my dad, after all. And you and mum need to get to know each other better." Jen stated calmly, and Gene wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her close to him gently, kissing the top of her head.

"I love you, baby. You know that, don't you?" He whispered, and Jenna's eyes filled with tears.

"I do now, Dad. I do now." She replied, and unseen by her, a single tear fell from her father's bright blue eye, rolling down his cheek slowly.

~/~/~/~

Jenna swung downstairs, laughing. "MUM! Dad's trying to…"

There was a tiny squirting noise and a cloud of aftershave settled over Jen's hair, coating her in a layer of wood-spice and musk. Jenna squealed and spun on the stairs to face Gene, who was stood on the landing, grinning at her triumphantly.

"Gotcha." He smirked, and Jenna reached out a hand and whacked his shin through the banisters.

"Thanks for that, Dad." She glared at him half-seriously and continued downstairs, running her hands through her hair and breathing in the smell of her father.

"Mum!" her tone took on a wheedling edge as she entered the kitchen. "Dad covered me in aftershave!"

Alex lowered the newspaper from her seat at the breakfast table and raised an eyebrow at her daughter. In the three months since the crash, she had moved in with Gene and Jenna, and she frequently had to intervene in their good-natured spats, warning them off each other for a few hours. She didn't mind. It was good to see them communicating and spending time together at last.

"Why?" Alex asked, smiling, and Jenna glared at her mother jokingly.

"I said he needed a better car. That one's still got a me-shaped dent in the bonnet. And black's BORING." Jen complained, and as she did so Gene entered the kitchen behind her.

"She hit me shin! She actually hit me! Little savage!" He exclaimed, and Alex stood, going straight to him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Well… I can't imagine where she gets that from, Mr Manc Lion." Alex teased and Gene kissed her.

Rolling her eyes, Jenna sat down, shaking her hair and releasing a cloud of Gene-smell. "I've got to shower again now! And I've JUST done my hair." She moaned, and Gene smirked again.

"Shouldn't have insulted me car then, should you? Cheeky." He apprehended, and Alex leant forwards so her head was on his chest.

"Maybe she's got a point, Gene… that car's horrible." She said frankly, and Gene looked affronted, pushing her away slightly.

"Oi! Miss Posh Knickers, I'll have yer know that that is a _Mercedes-Benz_, none the less! You're worse than Jen. Like mother, like daughter, eh?" He poked fun at her, and Alex went to stand behind her daughter, leaning down and kissing Jenna's head. They were alike – same shoulder-length brown hair, same eyes, same smile – and they knew that one of Gene's favourite things to tease them about was this likeness.

"It's called genetics, guv. Look it up." Alex responded, unfazed, poking her tongue out at Gene. "Speaking of which, we should probably get going."

"But it's _Saturday!_" Jenna protested, knowing it was fruitless.

"Yes, and scum doesn't do weekends. We won't be home late. You can live, can't you?" Alex assured the sixteen year old, and Jen nodded.

"I'll see you later then. I'm off to shower. AGAIN." She accused, dancing lightly past her parents, dropping a light kiss on both their cheeks before rushing up the stairs.

"You shouldn't tease her so much, Gene. She's got my temper." Alex reprimanded, and Gene laughed, kissing her.

"I can't 'elp it, Bolly… you know I can't." He explained, and Alex smiled.

"I know… I know. But still. Behave." She pleaded one final time, and Gene nodded, pulling her out the front door and into the Mercedes.

"Yes, Bolly. I will." He promised, starting the engine.

Neither of them noticed the woman with blonde hair and malicious green eyes lurking a short way along the road. As soon as the car was out of sight, the woman darted up the drive and pushed a brown envelope through the letterbox before turning and walking away as innocently as possible.

~/~/~/~

It wasn't until Jenna came downstairs after showering and re-styling her hair an hour later that she found the envelope. It wasn't named, so she ripped it open and slid the contents out, recognising the smooth white backs of photographs and flipping them over. As she took them in, her blood ran cold.

Gene. Gene and a blonde woman.

Kissing, and much more than just kissing, on a desk in an office she recognised as her father's.

"_No…"_


	9. Chapter 9

**My, aren't I generous this week? Here's part nine for your enjoyment :)**

**Much love to sash, my faithful reviewer... PLEASE can someone else review too? **

**Please R&R 3**

Jenna's hand flew to her mouth and she sunk to the floor, the pictures fluttering down around her and landing glossy-side up on the carpet, the date all too visible in the bottom corner: "11/04/1984"

Just a week before. The night her dad had "worked late", whilst Alex stayed at home with her, and they'd had a girls night in. He hadn't been working. He'd been with this woman, this blonde tart, having sex on his desk.

The stinging betrayal of it rendered Jenna speechless, and the tears began to roll down her cheeks slowly but surely. She raised her hand and rubbed a grubby sleeve across her cheeks, dragging tracks of blue mascara across her face as she did so. Mascara her mother had taught her to apply that night, as her dad had been off with this... woman.

Her face contorted into a grimace of pain. He'd said he loved her! He told Alex every day how beautiful she was and yet here he was with some ditzy blonde tart, running his fingers through her hair as they made love on his desk. It was so wrong, so utterly, utterly wrong, and she knew she could never stay in the same house as her father now, not now she knew what she had done. She didn't know where she would go, but she knew she had to get out, and soon... taking these dreadful photos with her before they ripped her family apart.

She raced up the stairs, mentally planning what to pack, and bursting into her room, whirling around stuffing clothes and makeup and a few prized possessions into a rucksack, ramming in the photos last. There was little point leaving a note. If she did that, then her parents would twig there was something wrong, and she couldn't ruin their relationship, not yet. She should just go.

She grabbed her purse before thundering back downstairs, snatching a few packets of crisps for sustenance from the kitchen.

This was it. She was really going to go. The home in which she'd spent the last few years of her life, a house that was now filled with so many happy memories as well as the painful ones. Memories of her dad and now her mum, and so she went into the lounge, sliding the photograph of the three of them from its frame and slipping it into her pocket as an afterthought. Then she knew she was truly ready to go, and so she walked slowly into the hallway, the apprehension mounting in her stomach.

"Goodbye, mum. Goodbye, dad." She whispered, before cracking open the front door and sidling out like a shadow, despite the fact it was midday outside. A final tear rolled down her cheek as she crept down the drive, squinting in the brightness of the sun.

She didn't notice, as she strode towards the park, the blonde woman following her with a look of pure evil on her face. As she turned into the small grassy field, little more than a football pitch and a slide, she sank onto a bench, her head in her hands.

The woman quickened her pace and sat down beside Jenna, adopting a look of friendly concern as she did so. "Penny for your thoughts." She invited in a warm Irish accent, but Jenna stayed looking down, brow furrowed.

"It's just... my dad, and my mum... and I've found out something that's really bad, and I just don't know what to do any more..." She explained, the tears choking her voice, and she looked over at the woman for the first time.

Realisation dawned immediately, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach growing and distorting to hate instantly.

"You're... you're the woman in the photographs!" Jenna shouted, but the woman stayed calm, a smug look creeping across her face.

"Indeed I am, honey, and what are you going to do about it? Your dad was a mighty good ride, and I'm sure he's going to take pretty well to life without you and your ma." The woman provoked, and Jenna's face contorted further with anger and something more – confusion.

"My mother? What has she got to do with th–" Before she could finish the question, a cloth was clamped over her mouth and nose and her lungs were burning, burning, burning...

...The last thing she remembered as her vision blurred and distorted beyond recognition, fading into blackness, was the smug face of the woman saying something to the person holding the cloth to her face.

"One Drake down. One to go."


	10. Chapter 10

**So... part ten! Lots of angsty stuff in this chapter, and a few questions are answered! Hope you like it, please R&R :) **

"Gene!" Alex squealed as she opened the front door, swatting his lips away from her neck as she entered the warm interior of the house. "Jen! We're home!"

The house remained silent, and Alex frowned as Gene tumbled into the hall behind her.

"Jen?" She called again, but the house stayed deafening silent. Gene wound an arm around Alex's waist as her brow furrowed.

"I'm sure she's 'ere, Bolls, she's probably asleep." He reassured, but there was panic stirring in his stomach as he said the words. Alex broke from his grasp, thundering up the stairs, calling her daughter's name.

"JEN?" She shouted desperately, and he charged after her, about to speak when Alex fell silent. He followed her into Jenna's room, and he saw her stood in the centre of the room.

A room which was definitely empty.

"Jen?" his voice was hoarse as he whispered the word Alex had been repeating, looking around at the room that had obviously been turned upside down.

"Why would she... why would she go?" Alex's voice cracked, and he went to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and stroking her hair. "Why, Gene? She was happy! She was so happy..." She was sobbing into his chest, and he could feel her tears soaking his shirt.

"Maybe it wasn't like that..." he murmured, trying to diplomatically express the worst that could have happened.

"But _who _Gene? We haven't got any enemies!" She gasped, and he closed his eyes, trying to stop the tears he could feel welling up.

"We do, Bolly..." He told her, hating himself for what he was about to do but knowing it must be said.

"Who?" She exclaimed and his heart broke as he gritted his teeth, knowing he had to tell her.

"Jim Keats."

~/~/~/~

Jenna opened her eyes groggily. The murky grey light was blinding, but she snapped them wide open, blinking away the spots and focusing her vision. The woman from the photos was sat across the room from her, and she smiled grimly when she saw that the teenager was awake.

"James?" She called, and a man with slick black hair and horn-rimmed glasses entered Jenna's field of vision. He gave off an aura of hatred and dark things, and as he walked towards her she tried to cower, only to find her hands were tied behind her back.

"Well, well, well. Drake Number Two." He sneered, leaning towards her. "Who'd have thought genetics were so prevalent?" He asked himself, laughing a cruel laugh. "You don't half look like your mother."

"Who are you?" Jenna mumbled, her head still spinning from the unknown drug. "How'd you... how'd you know my mum?"

"I loved her." He explained bitterly. "Loved and _lost. _Just like my dearest companion loved your father. But there's no need for broken hearts. Not when we've got _you._"

"What do you mean?" Jenna whispered, and the woman laughed.

"We've got you, our little bargaining chip. You're ma's gonna come after you, and then when your dearest father comes after her... we've got plans for him." She explained in a light Irish accent, smirking as she did so.

"But what do you want them for?" Jenna was desperate now, trying to understand. The man leant down and grabbed her hair, pulling her head upwards sharply. She winced in pain.

"Because, young lady, your father took _my _Alex away from me. And she took Jenette's _Genie _from her. We both want our revenge. I will have your mother. And we will deal with your father." His tone was cruel, and Jenna's blood ran cold.

"You mean... _no._" Realisation dawned as she murmured the words and before she could flinch away the man's lips were on hers, cruel, passionless, and the woman was complaining.

"James!" The Irish woman chided and then he was gone. "Save it for Alex. That bitch deserves everything she gets."

"Leave her alone!" Jen tried to defend her mother, knowing even as she said the words what the effect would be.

"Shut it. You'll get what you deserve too, filthy, treacherous, lying cow." Jenette's words were delivered with a stinging slap, and Jen fell silent.

"You'll all pay for this." James whispered to her menacingly, smiling a secret smile. They'd all kept secrets from him, all lied, all betrayed him. Well it was his turn to keep a secret. The name on his warrant card, the name that he always signed as was not James.

It was Jim Keats.


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry for the delay guys! Here's part 11, a bit more angsty stuff... hope you like it :)**

**Pleaseeeeeee can people read and review? I only got one for the last chapter :( **

Alex hung her head in her hands. A thousand questions, forms, probing inquiries and veiled accusations. To her, it was incredible that anyone could think she had in some way been connected to her own daughter's disappearance, or that Gene was in any way linked to it either. Anyone that had seen the family together would know that there was no way they could have any malicious intent towards Jenna, but she knew that looks could be deceptive, more so than anyone else.

As she sat on the hard plastic chair in Interview Room One, a room she normally commanded with her presence, her thoughts turned to Gene. When they'd arrived at the station, Alex hysterical beside his quietly panicking frame, she'd been coaxed from his arm by a quiet WPC and led away from him, to this room, where officers she knew and trusted sat and probed into her life. Now, she was alone, and she wanted nothing more than to seek solace in the arms of the man she loved, but he was who knows where.

"Gene..." she murmured to herself, and as if she had so willed it to happen the door swung open and he was framed in the suddenly bright light from the corridor outside.

"Bolly..." his voice was tired, but he opened his arms to her nonetheless, and she was embracing him in an instant, whispering his name into his chest as he stroked her back and hair, murmuring soothing words to try and calm her.

"Where is she? Do they have any idea who it could be?" she asked, and he shook his head wearily before realising that she could not see this action from where her head was buried into his shoulder.

"They think it could be... it could be Jim Keats." He explained, feeling her form freeze in his grasp as she clenched in fear, her breath leaving her in an instant.

"Keats..." she repeated, the fear making her voice hitch and tears threatened to choke her.

"Bolly... I know, I know..." he soothed her automatically, knowing that she was only seconds from completely breaking down and determined to prevent her from complete meltdown. "They say I've got to stay in a while longer, sweetheart." He concluded, his heart breaking as she pulled away from him fractionally, mascara streaking her face. She raised a trembling hand and dragged it across her cheeks, the black makeup she applied so religiously each morning now ruined and bedraggled.

"But... why?" She asked, and the tears were flowing thicker than ever now, removing the black dredges from her cheeks completely, pooling in the hollows of her jaw and neck.

"Cos of what 'appened before... with the car. Don't look too good, Alex. They think it might be me." He confided, her face crumpling further as he uttered the words in a numb monotone.

"Alright, Mr Hunt. That's enough." The PC behind Gene reprimanded gently, and Alex recognised the young officer she had been working with only that morning. "DI Drake." He acknowledged, and she couldn't even bring herself to acknowledge him.

"I love you." She whispered, kissing him once with a bittersweet finality before he was pulled away from her for good.

"Love you," He repeated, and although she could not hear him as he was marched along the corridor, he kept repeating the words like a mantra, determined that the thought of her would keep him strong.

~/~/~/~

Alex sat at the kitchen table, gazing down at the photographs she had strewn across the surface. Stages of her daughter's life she had missed littered the surface, tens of smiling images beaming up at her, the same chestnut hair and hazel eyes in each one.

"Where are you?" she whispered. "Who's got you?" she implored the photos, as though like Molly had once done, Jenna would find some way to respond to her words.

There was a noise by the front door, and she leapt to her feet. "Jen?" She called hopefully, and when there was no response, she took a breath and tried again. "Gene?" she asked, in case he had been released early and returned to her. Still no answer.

Apprehensively, she crept through the hall, hardly daring to hope that there was some way her daughter or partner would be there. Instead, she saw a brown envelope lying on the doormat, and curiously she picked it up and slid it open.

The photos spilled out into her hand, brightly coloured and highly shocking. Gene and that woman – she scarcely remembered her name. Jenette. Gene and Jenette. Kissing. And the date...

Her heart stopped, chest tightening unbearably. She struggled for breath like a dying man, lungs constricting but unable to expand.

_How could he? How could he do this to me, to Jen? He said he was working... yeah, he looks like he's working _really _hard there. Bastard. _Bastard.

Her first thought was get out of the house, away from every reminder of him, the building that exuded the essence of him from its very bricks. She fumbled the locks of the door, exploding into the quiet cul de sac with a gasp of release, running anywhere that wasn't there.

She was hardly aware of her follower until she reached the park, sinking onto the bench that her daughter had occupied hours previously, the night enveloping her, enveloping the woman behind her until she was upon her, the cloth over her nose and mouth turning her vision kaleidoscope.

She succumbed quietly, her form becoming limp within seconds, and Jenette smiled cruelly.

"Gotcha."


	12. Chapter 12

**So, I'm feeling generous... here's part twelve! Hope you like it :)**

**Much love to my reviewers :D Please R&R! **

As she opened her eyes, Alex became aware of a constant, nagging ache at the back of her head. She blinked slowly in the harsh light, each opening of her lids aggravating the snarling pain in her skull. Her throat was bone dry, but she managed to croak out a single word, a word that held so much desperation, so much hope, that her words were as choked by emotion as lack of water: "Help…" she murmured. "Help me."

"Mum…"

The single syllable made her heart soar. Wherever she was, it didn't matter because her daughter was with her. She was safe. Alex forced her eyes open and the room took shape, white walls and grey floor, with a bunk opposite her. Sat on the bunk, smiling broadly, was Jenna. There was a bruise on her temple and her cheeks were flushed, but she looked well otherwise, and she crossed to where Alex lay, sitting beside her mother and taking her hand.

"So they got you too?" She whispered, and Alex nodded, the tears welling in her eyes and cutting scalding tracks down her cheeks.

"Your dad…" she managed, but Jenna shook her head and held out a plastic bottle of water to her. She drunk greedily before continuing her sentence. "Your dad… he was with another woman."

The pain of the memory consumed her… the photos, a shock of blonde hair against Gene's lips as they kissed.

"I know." Jen's words were resigned, and Alex blinked in shock.

"You… you knew?" Alex repeated dumbly, and Jen nodded slowly. "Is that why you ran? Who took you?"

Before her daughter could answer, the door to their small prison slammed open and Jim Keats was framed in the doorway, leering.

"Alex. So nice to see you again. You two, with me." He snarled, and as Alex opened her mouth to protest, she saw Jenna's barely perceptible shake of her head and understood what was meant instantly. _Don't fight. Do what he says._

She stood shakily and followed him, supported by Jenna, trying to disguise the tremble in her hands that had nothing to do with her drugging.

The room he took them too was even whiter than the previous one, and sat on a chair smugly was _her. _Jenette. It was sheer fatigue that kept Alex from lunging for her instantly, and instead she collapsed into a chair, Jenna sinking to her knees beside her.

"What did you do to her?" She asked, and Jenette snorted without amusement.

"Nothing, hon. She's been drugged before, and this won't be the last time. Not our fault she reacts to chloroform bad." Jenette explained, and Jenna's head snapped up, her hazel gaze penetrating Jenette's with fury. Before she could speak, her mother interrupted.

"Why are we even here?" Alex asked, her voice desperate, and it was Keats turn to snigger.

"Are you really so stupid? And you were supposed to be the brains of the outfit, DI Drake." From his lips, her rank seemed an insult, and Alex was too tired to argue.

"Just tell me what you've got against my family. Please." Alex implored, and Keats sat opposite her, sneering.

"It's simple. I want you. Jenette hates you for taking Gene from her. I hate Gene for the same reason. We have you with us – I get my way, and we both get our revenge on your precious Genie when he comes to rescue you and your vile brat." He sneered, and Alex looked up, some of the old fight returning.

"Don't you dare call her that." She threatened, before realising what else he had said. "Gene was with… he was with her last week." Her voice broke as she said the words and it was Jenette's turn to laugh, a sound that would have been musical were it not so loaded with malice.

"Come on… you honestly think he'd look at me twice after everything? They were faked, Alex. I thought it was obvious."

As the explanation came out, Alex hung her head. She'd seriously doubted Gene. She'd believed the photos, bought the lies.

Jenna felt no better. She'd honestly thought her father had betrayed her, honestly thought he'd hurt her and her mother in that way. She was disgusted with herself.

"Not so good now, are you, Alex?" Keats couldn't help but gloat. "Fell for our little prank. And now Gene's going to be released _very _soon and we've laid a careful trail all the way back here. And when he shows up… we've laid on a little welcome party." As he finished speaking, he reached into his pocket and produced a gun, spinning the chamber absentmindedly as he raised the barrel to his lips, blowing across the muzzle.

"Boom…" he whispered melodramatically, and Alex flinched.

"You wouldn't…" she pleaded, and he laughed.

"I would." He confirmed, before grabbing her by the throat. "And there's something else I've got to do first."

He forced his lips onto hers cruelly, and she tried to fight but the gun pressed into her ribs, a constant threat, and so she succumbed, feeling his free hand roaming where she didn't want it.

"Get off her!" Jenna screamed, and he pulled away for the briefest of moments to smirk at her before he prodded Alex at gunpoint through to an adjoining room. Desperately, Jenna tried to follow her mother, but Jenette seized her, holding her back.

"Let me _go!_ What kind of a monster are you?" Jenna yelled, tears running down her face as she fought, one hand whipping up and making contact with Jenette's nose, forcing the woman to release her.

"MUM!"

And then she was running into the room, and all she could see was Keats on top of her mother, both still clothed but Alex sobbing and crying, Keats hands roaming her body lecherously…

And then Jenna was on Keats, fighting, hitting, grabbing, biting, scratching him, desperate to get him off her mother…

And then he was gesticulating with the gun wildly…

And then a single shot rang through the dilapidated building, cutting the silent air.

_Boom._

**Dun dun dunnnnnn! :O**


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry about the slight delay guys! I've been in London, meeting Keeley herself! :D**

**I'm on holiday until Friday, so no updates until then, sorry!**

**Please R&R and enjoy! **

The shot cut through the still air, the screaming ceasing momentarily before it began again. Jenette wrenched open the door and stared inside in horror, praying it was Alex, anyone but the other two... and she could see the blood, she could smell it, and it was everywhere, all over all three of them. Alex... Alex was flying at Jim, hitting, scratching, punching, screaming from the depths of her soul, a raw, emotional sound that was both heartfelt and heartbreaking.

Jenna... Jenna was lying on the bed, hands clutched to her stomach, beyond screaming. The colour was draining from her face slowly, and her eyelids were fluttering.

"Jim..." Jenette cautioned, and he looked at her from the corner Alex had fought him into, his face half defeated, half angry. "This has gone far enough. She needs medical assistance. She's not gonna die, it's not right that he loses her. Not her fault who her father is."

With a careless ease, Jim surged forwards, grabbing Alex's throat and pinning her against the wall, overpowering her with dismissive ease. "But we _agreed! _Hunt deserves what he gets!" He snarled, and Jenette scowled.

"I said we should hurt Drake. Not the kid. Hurt her a little, but that... she's not gonna recover unless we help her. It's not fair, Jim!" Jenette pleaded, and Jim glared at her, ignoring the whimpers from Alex and pulling her arm behind her back further.

"Sounds like you're getting cold feet. Maybe I should put a bullet in you as well as this one – " he yanked on Alex's arm again. "And leave all three of you for Hunt to enjoy."

"Jim, this has gone far enough! Let her go, we need to prepare for when Hunt gets here." Jenette coaxed, and Jim snarled before shoving Alex towards the bed and leaving the room, Jenette pausing momentarily.

"This has gone far enough. I don't want this anymore. I won't let anything happen." She reassured, but Alex simply scowled.

"Out." She growled, and Jenette left, leaving mother and daughter alone together.

"Mum..." Jenna whispered, the words visibly draining her. Alex lay beside her, placing a hand over the pulsing wound in her daughter's left side, the same place as her own, and murmuring in her ear.

"Don't talk..." she urged, her voice choked with tears. "Just stay strong. Dad'll be here soon, and everything will be fine. We'll be alright, Jen. You're going to be fine. Keep fighting."

"It hurts, Mum... And Dad... they're going to hurt him. Go. Get out now. Leave me. Warn Dad. You two need to survive." Jenna encouraged, her voice barely audible.

"I'm not leaving you, Jen... besides, there's no way I can get out." Alex replied, the tears flowing down her cheeks freely.

"You can. The window goes to a fire escape. _Go. _Please, Mum." Jenna begged, and she was slipping, anyone could see that.

"But..." Alex tried to protest.

"_GO!" _Jenna commanded desperately, and Alex nodded, clinging to her daughter desperately, kissing her hair, her face, her shoulders, never wanting to let go.

"I love you." She whispered, over and over, the words choked.

"I love you, Mum. And Dad. Tell him I love him. Now _go._" Jen pleaded, and Alex stood, her hand slipping from Jenna's with a moment of final, terrible certainty, and she turned to go.

She slipped out of the window and onto the fire escape without looking back, knowing if she did she could never leave her daughter.

~/~/~/~

Gene parked the car well away from the building, checking his gun was loaded and tucking it into his waistband. He crept towards the old disused factory, sticking to the shadows, checking around him furtively to ensure he wasn't being followed or watched.

He was halfway there when the woman came out of the shadows on the opposite side of the road, covered in blood, staggering, sobbing, and he realised he knew that blouse, those jeans.

"Alex?" he ran towards her, relief flooding his body. She was alive. Her search for Jenna – he frowned. She'd gone to search for Jenna, surely? So where was their daughter?

"Gene..." she collapsed forwards into his arms, her weight catching him by surprise and causing him to stagger slightly. Her words were desperate:

"Jenna. They've got Jenna. She's been shot."


	14. Chapter 14

**So, here's part 14! Hope you all like it, please R&R!**

As Alex said the words, an electric current seemed to pass through Gene. The anger flared inside him, and his face set into a mask of steely determination.

"Where?" He asked through clenched teeth, and Alex pointed him towards the fire escape, protesting feebly when he seized her hand and began to drag her towards it with him. He half-pulled, half-carried her up the rusting metal stairs, climbing through the window without thinking and cursing quietly.

Jenna had not moved, but the puddle of blood that surrounded her had expanded, her hands sticky crimson, her face white.

"Jen?" he whispered, but she did not respond.

"Shit... no, please, no." Gene went to her side, listening for a breath, looking to see if her chest was rising and falling. There – the slightest of movements, a rattling breath entering her fragile lungs.

"Why?" He asked Alex, and she shrugged, unable to speak. "These bastards don't just do this for fun, Alex! Why did they shoot 'er?" he lost patience and snapped.

"He was sexually assaulting me, Gene! She tried to stop him!" she shouted, forgetting Keats and Jenette lying in wait in the next room, forgetting everything but the feel of Keats's hands on her, his tongue in her mouth...

"What?" Gene's words were menacing. "He did _what?_"

"HE TRIED TO RAPE ME!" She shouted again, and with that the door burst in, Jim framed in the doorway, levelling his gun at first Alex and then Gene. He took a cursory glance over Jenna's figure on the bed and sneered.

"She's not dead yet? Pity. Soon." He spat, looking at Alex lecherously. "I'll do a lot more than try, sweetheart, once we've got Hunt out of the way."

"You lay a _finger _on 'er..." Gene threatened, and Keats laughed.

"I already have, Hunt. What are you going to do about it? You'll be dead by then." Keats reasoned cruelly, and Gene's face contorted with fury.

"Why do you hate me so much, Jimbo?" he asked, his voice raw with anger. "Come on, tell me."

Keats, worked into a frenzy by lust, anger, and power, wasted no time in replying. "Because you get her!" He gestured carelessly at Alex, and she flinched. "You've got everything I want, and you've destroyed policing!"

"Not a reason, Jimbo. I get the collar. Not my fault the women love me. Not my fault yer never gonna get a shag, is it?" Gene provoked, and Jim snarled.

"She doesn't love you, Hunt! She never loved you!" Jim spat, and Gene looked at Alex for the briefest of seconds, knowing it wasn't true as she looked at him with an expression that spoke louder than words.

"Where's yer associate?" Gene asked, ignoring his previous comment.

"I'm here, Hunt." Jenette strode into the room with a false sense of confidence. "It's been a while."

"It 'as, hasn't it?" Gene confirmed, and Alex was confused. What was he doing? There was a psychopath pointing a gun at him and he was flirting. "'Ow's things?"

"It only got worse after you left, Gene. After you shot her. Had to go undercover. Wasn't keen on that. Not my style." Her words were soft, and she could feel her heart aching. He knew her. He knew her secret.

"How's the baby?" Gene inquired, and she looked up at him in horror.

"Baby?" Keats asked, his voice incredulous.

"Baby?" Alex wondered out loud, feeling her heart sink. _Please don't tell me they... no..._

"He's fine. Three, now." Jenette answered, a smile tugging the corners of her mouth. Alex's heart leapt with relief.

"What the hell is he talking about, Jenette? What baby? I thought we agreed, kill him upon sight!" Keats was incandescent with rage, gesturing madly with the gun, and Jenette took a few steps further into the room. To compensate, Alex went to Gene's side, and his arm went around her reassuringly.

"I don't want to kill him." Jenette murmured, and Jim's face contorted, beyond anger.

"Then I'll do it myself!" Jim screamed, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet flew straight and true.

Smoke obscured the room for a moment.

Alex screamed, feeling Gene collapse to the ground beside her, feeling blood on her face.

There was the sound of a body hitting the ground.

Then silence.

**Heehee! I'm so evil :D**


	15. Chapter 15

**Just a short update! Apologies for typos or anything, I'm tired. Other than that, please enjoy and R&R! **

Alex sunk to the floor as the smoke cleared, reaching out her hands, expecting to find Gene sprawled there, bleeding. Instead, her hands met with soft leather and denim, and finally she saw Jenette, crimson blossoming on her chest, Gene holding her head and murmuring to her reassuringly.

"Gene..." Jenette's words brought a gush of blood rushing over her lips, staining them scarlet.

"Don't talk." Gene instructed. "Don't talk. Alex, nick him."

She stood, advancing over to Keats and trying to look as stern as she could, taking his un-protesting hands and cuffing them behind his back. She pressed on his shoulders until he sat on the edge of the bed, shocked.

"Siobhan. What's gonna happen about..." Jenette worried, and Alex found herself taking the woman's hand, despite all that happened.

"She'll be looked after. Now shush." She reassured, and Gene smiled at her gratefully.

"Promise?" Jenette whispered, and Alex nodded.

"I promise." She murmured, and Jenette smiled faintly. Her eyelids fluttered and Gene shook her gently.

"Jenette? Jenette?" He asked desperately, but there was no response. Gene turned to Keats and took a menacing half step towards him.

"You've killed a mother. You've left that kid with no parents, no one to love it. You bastard." He threatened, and Alex stood, resting her hand on Gene's chest.

"Gene... don't. Take Jenna. Get her out. Get help. I'll deal with him." She cautioned, and he hesitated only momentarily before scooping up his daughter and climbing from the room as carefully as he could.

Alex turned to Keats and sat beside him carefully, trying to force herself not to flinch as he leant towards her slightly.

"It's not going to happen, Jim. You're going to go to jail for this, and you will not be able to hurt me or Gene or Jenna anymore." She murmured to him, trying to sound confident.

"I don't care, Alex. She's going to die. Hunt's going to interrogate you later. And it only takes me to say you initiated our kiss earlier to sow the seeds of doubt in his mind. The next thing you know, you and your kid'll be out on your ears, all alone in the streets, and Gene'll turn to the bottle."

"No." Alex's voice was low and menacing. "That isn't going to happen."

"It will, Alex. And nothing you can do can change it." Jim was relishing this torment, sneering smugly.

"I can. And I have. You see, Jim... I'm pregnant."

Her words echoed around the room, and Gene, returning to help her with Keats, stood frozen in the window in shock.

"Bolly?"


	16. Chapter 16

**Sorry about the delay, guys! I've been rushed off my feet with school. Angsty little chapter here, please enjoy and R&R! :)**

"Bolly?" Gene asked again, his face contorted with shock. "Yer... yer pregnant?"

Alex nodded hesitantly, standing and going to him, trying to take his face in her hands. He pulled away and she stood, her hands outstretched, her eyes pleading with him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Gene asked, his voice hard. "Why'd yer tell 'im first, not me? Alex?"

"I... I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't know how you'd react, Gene, and then Jim was threatening me and I had to tell him to stop him..." She tried to explain and Gene raised his eyebrows.

"Threatening yer with what?" He inquired suspiciously, and Jim leapt into the conversation.

"To tell you about our affair, Hunt." Keats spat, and Gene's eyes flashed.

"Please... Gene... don't..." Alex began but Gene cut her off.

"Don't what? Don't go mad that you were off shaggin' the bloke trying to destroy me?" He accused, and Alex's face fell momentarily before becoming angry.

"NO! Don't listen to that bastard! You think I'd do that to you?" She asked, praying he knew that she wouldn't, praying he wouldn't seriously think that.

"I don't know any more, Alex. I don't know if I can trust yer." He said, and then Alex's tear overflowed, rolling down her cheeks slowly. "How do I know you and 'im weren't up to God knows what and poor Jen interrupted and you shot 'er?" He asked, and she shook her head.

"No... no... she's my daughter, Gene! She's our little girl!" She pleaded, and Gene raised his eyebrows again.

"Is she even mine?" He accused, and her mouth fell open in shock.

"You know she is! I love you, Gene!" She begged, but he simply took a few steps into the room, grabbed hold of Keats and roughly dragged him towards the window.

"Course. In the meantime, you can walk 'ome and do a bit of thinking on the way." He told her, and Alex stepped towards him desperately.

"Please, Gene! You know that I love you, you know I wouldn't do that to you! Don't listen to him!" she pleaded, but his face remained stonily impassive.

"Start walking, DI Drake. I mean it." He threatened, and then he was gone, leaving Alex alone, covered in blood, sat on the bed where Jenna had been laying only minutes earlier. She put her head in her hands, sobbing. He really believed Jim Keats. He really listened to that bastard, and now he was alone in the car with him, listening to more of his lies. Well she'd show him.

She stood and went over to the door to the room she had been in before, with Jenna, Jenette and Keats. It opened easily, and she had taken only a few steps inside when she saw it.

Sat in the middle of the floor was a little girl with blonde hair and bright green eyes.

And beside her was a stick of what looked suspiciously like dynamite, with a timer, counting down the seconds.

_Twenty... nineteen... eighteen..._


	17. Chapter 17

**Firstly - I am so, so sorry about the delay with this! I've had exams and stuff so this is is the first chance I've had to update. Secondly - I apologise for the shortness and possible awfulness of this chapter.**

**Other than that, please R&R!**

Alex acted without thinking, lunging across the floor and scooping up the young child before running from the room, scrambling through the window desperately. Her feet clacked on the rusting metal as she descended urgently, clutching the little girl to her body in an attempt to shield her from what she knew was coming.

She was halfway down when the blast came. The flash registered in Alex's peripheral vision first, then the sound, and suddenly the fire escape was no longer beneath her feet and she was running on air, plummeting down, down, down, screaming one word as loudly as she could...

"GENE!"

~/~/~/~

Gene spun the wheel of the car sharply right, trying to ignore the smug face of Keats beside him. He needed to get his daughter to hospital. Then he could take the bastard to some dark back alley and punch several types of shit out of him for saying what he had about Alex.

God, he couldn't believe he'd actually listened to what the slimy git had said about her. His beloved Bolly, and he'd believed Keats' slurs. He'd accused her of sleeping with his arch nemesis... he'd asked if Jenna was even his... how could he ever make it up to her? Ideas ran through his brain over and over, and he was only jolted from his reverie by the crackle of his radio.

"Guv?" A voice at the other end asked and he rolled his eyes.

"Hunt. What?" He snapped, releasing the button angrily.

"Explosion at a disused warehouse in Lewisham. Two casualties found outside." The voice said calmly and the blood froze in Gene's veins. It couldn't be... no...

"Wh... who are they?" he managed to stutter, and the voice at the other end took an abrupt breath in.

"Guv, it's DI Drake. DI Drake and a kid." It confirmed, and Gene's face fell.

"Shit... shit... no..." Gene murmured, spinning the wheel and skidding the car around.

"Be careful, Hunt. Go back to Alex and Jen'll die. Take Jen to hospital and you might not see Alex alive again. She might even lose the baby. It's your call." Keats hissed, and Gene acted without thinking, lashing out with his left hand. He felt it connect with Jim's nose, and then he realised he was right.

What could he do? He couldn't be with both of them. They both needed him. His daughter or the love of his life?

It was a split second decision. He spun the car back round to the hospital, a plan already forming in his mind.


	18. Chapter 18

**Sorry about the insane wait on this one... what with exams and book returns and stuff, I just haven't had the time or motivation until now. So, here is a nice, long, tense chapter for you to enjoy and chew your fingernails off at... I hope you like it! Please R&R :)**

Alex was falling. Or at least, she thought she was. Surely the explosion should have finished by now, and she should have hit the ground?

Wait... there it was, hard, gritty under her cheek, and although she fought to open her eyes she could not. Pain burned through her body, and as she breathed she felt the sharp sting of broken ribs within her chest. Pain was good. Pain meant she was alive, alive in Gene's world at least.

It could not, would not be possible that she still lived on in Molly's world. That world was – she had accepted – forever closed to her now.

She took another shuddering breath and tried once more to open her eyes. The pain was dulling in her sides now, and surely that was not good? No pain meant coma, or death, and she could not face either of those, not with what she had now. She was falling again, and this time she knew it was truly falling, not just her mind or her body playing tricks on her.

_Molly was stood beside Alex's bedside, holding her mother's rapidly cooling hand. "I'm sorry, mummy..." she whispered, the tears not yet flowing. "I had to do it... it's been a year. The doctors say there's no brain activity and you're not getting any better. I can't stand it, seeing you just lying there all cold and passive. Evan hates it too. He says you were always his little girl, always looking after him and me over yourself, and now he feels so guilty. Says he shouldn't have let you go back to work. I shouldn't have let you either. But now they've got Layton. He won't hurt anyone ever again. But he hurt you, mummy..." the teenager's voice broke, and she raised her mother's hand to her lips. "I'm sorry. I said they could switch you off. I hope you find peace, wherever you go." She squeezed Alex's hand tightly. "I love you."_

_From across the room, a frantic, racing pulse began to bleep out a rhythm on the monitor, and Molly's head snapped up. _

"_Mum?" she whispered, sure she was dreaming. Since she had switched the life support off five minutes previously, the nurses had left her alone to sit with her mother as she slipped, but they had not warned her about this. "Mummy?" Molly squeezed her mother's hand once more._

_Alex squeezed back, faintly but perceptibly. Her eyes fluttered open a moment later and she looked around her in horror. "Gene?" she asked desperately. "Jen?"_

_Molly perched doubtfully beside her mother on the bed. "Mummy? It's Molly... you're home."_

"_No, I can't be... Gene. GENE. He needs me... Jenna needs me. The baby..." Alex murmured, as a single, silvery tear bisected her cheek._

"_Mum? What baby? Who's Gene? You're home. You came back to me." Molly reassured, but Alex retained her expression of distress._

Gene arrived by Alex's side ten minutes after the explosion. He had left Jen with the hospital staff and then driven as fast as he could humanly manage to be with her. She was lying on the cold ground, exposed, vulnerable, bleeding sluggishly from her arms and cheek.

"Bolly..." his voice was cracked with emotion, and he shoved past the paramedics, journalists and fire crews, ignoring their shouted warnings and complaints.

"Alex..." he knelt by her side and took her hand in his, looking past the blood and the bruises and her closed eyes to the woman he loved.

"C'mon, wake up, please... think of the baby..." he implored but her eyes stayed closed.

"OI! One of yer... do somethin'..." he begged a passing paramedic, who came to crouch beside him and took Alex's hand from Gene.

"There's a pulse. She'll be alright." He reassured, and with that he was gone.

Gene stayed with her as they loaded her into the ambulance, holding her hand all the way to the hospital, whispering soft words of comfort and encouragement and pleading with her to wake up.

As they ripped him away from her at the doors of resus one, he shouted and swore and lashed out until they let him in, and he stood, motionless, silent, in the corner as they worked on her. The words went over his head, but he could see what they were doing to his beautiful Alex, sticking needles and tubes and monitoring devices all over and into her skin, so many that he lost count. He just stared at her for as long as he could, until the edges of his vision curled and he had to blink, telling himself if he could make it to thirty without blinking, forty, fifty, she would wake up.

But she didn't.

As Gene reached fifty two, he heard the sound he had been dreading, the sound every person fears.

The heart monitor fell into silence.


	19. Chapter 19

**I am so so so sorry about the huge update time! I had very very bad writers block, and this only came to me whilst I was in France! I might do one more concluding chapter after this one, but anyway... yeah. Please enjoy and R&R, if you're still reading!**

"NO!" Gene's cry was pure anguish, ripped from his very soul. "Save 'er! You've got to, do somethin'!" he begged, and the doctors snapped into action, trying to escort him from the room but he dug in his heels until they allowed him to stay. Everything slowed down. One doctor beat a steady rhythm on Alex's chest, regular, jerky movements, and after a few moments, another tried to defibrillate her back into the world. Her body writhed like some vile, life-sized puppet, jerking up and down on the cold, clinical bed, but the monitor still registered nothing.

"Please, Alex... c'mon..." Gene whispered, and if in answer to his prayer, there she was, opening her eyes, and the beeping was back, a constant, regular pulse. She was alive, and all Gene cared about was taking her in his arms and kissing her and never letting her go. He went to her side slowly, hesitantly, and saw she was smiling up at him dreamily, as though she was not quite properly awake and was still rising from the clutches of sleep.

"Gene." She murmured, raising her hand and placing it on his cheek. "My _Gene._" She sounded dopey, Gene thought briefly, and he took her hand reassuringly.

"S'alright love. I'm 'ere. Yer gonna be alright. Gave me quite a scare." His voice turned gruff with emotion at the end of the sentence, and he smiled down at her, willing himself not to cry.

"But... Molly... was with my _Molly..._" Alex continued, and Gene's face clouded briefly. Late one night, she had explained to him once more about her daughter, and he understood her heartache.

"I know, Bolls. I know. But she'll be OK. Jen needs us now, yeah? And little one..." He was struck by a sudden thought. The baby _was _alright, wasn't it? He turned his head to one of the nurses, who nodded and smiled at him, and he leant down to kiss Alex's head, relieved. "Yer my little fighter. Both of yer."

Alex nodded weakly and swallowed painfully before suddenly realising... "Gene... where is Jen? Is she OK? Is she..." Her voice broke before she could finish the sentence with that terrible word, and Gene realised he had no idea what condition his daughter was in.

"I... urm, I dunno. I was worried about you, Alex. She's 'ere, somewhere. She'll be okay, don't you worry. We'll go find 'er together, yeah?" He reassured, and Alex nodded again before her head flopped back onto the pillow, exhausted. "Alex?" Gene asked, and she murmured an acknowledgement.

"Love yer, Bolls."

~/~/~/~

Jenna lay in a darkened room, semi-conscious. She knew she was supposed to be asleep, but she didn't feel able to sleep until she knew her mother was alright. The last thing she remembered clearly was the gun... hot pain in her side... and after that, all was dreamlike. She'd heard her mother say she was pregnant, remembered her father's angry words and then being in his arms. A constant rocking... the car, perhaps, and then cold evening air and an uncomfortable hospital trolley. She wanted her dad. She hated being away from him, and knew he would only leave her for one reason. Her mother must be in some kind of danger, she concluded, and now she was worrying. Her stomach throbbed, and she needed to talk to someone, find out what was happening.

The light snapped on, and she screwed up her eyes, pretending to be asleep.

"Jen?" The gruff Mancunian accent was achingly familiar and she opened her eyes instantly.

"_Dad..._" She whispered, and her heart leapt as she beheld not only him, but her mother too, smiling wearily from a wheelchair. "You're OK... you're both OK..."

And then all three of them were crying, happy to be alive, relieved to simply be with each other.

**A/N: Please also check out my new songfic, "Little Did I Know." :D 3**


End file.
